


Per Ardua

by NotEvident



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Post-Undertale Pacifist Route...?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-08 03:56:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11073561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotEvident/pseuds/NotEvident
Summary: An ending where everyone is happy is but a selfishly delusional wish.Asriel wishes Frisk had known that.Frisk sacrifices themselves to save Asriel. But this isn't the outcome they had hoped for.





	1. Chapter 1

A small figure crouched down in a field of yellow flowers, illuminated by the setting sun’s light trickling through the chink at the top of the cavern, bathing the area in a soft orange.  
  
Even though only the tiniest pinprick of warm light would reach in and caress the dark, damp floor of the Underground, a small field of beautiful flowers bloomed brightly anyway, almost spitefully to the general inhospitality of the area. All was peaceful, though if he strained his ears, he could hear the excited cheers and celebrations of the monsters in the Ruins as they prepared to leave.  
  
He had set them free. After so long, the freedom all monsters had yearned for was finally here. He guessed they all probably felt like they were dreaming.  
Being the one to have brought them salvation… to finally have brought true peace to them, after having done so much damage to them in so many other timelines…  
  
It felt almost like atonement for his many, many sins.  
  
And yet… A prickling, sour feeling remained rooted in his heart. Dark thoughts surfaced soundlessly in his mind, accompanied with pangs of jealousy, growing stronger with each passing moment.  
  
Why, why, couldn't he have been able to experience the joy of being free?  
Why did he have to be self-exiled to this damp, horrible cave?  
Why did it have to be him to stop being able to feel positive feelings again, and turn back into… that?  
  
He forced himself to stop there; he was going too far. Self-pity wouldn't do anything for his situation anyway. Yet, as much as he prevented himself from thinking, he could not stop a stingingly hot tear from escaping his eyes.  
  
“Crybaby through and through, I guess.” He sniffled, using his sleeve to wipe his snout.

* * *

  
  
He didn't know how much time had passed when a familiar voice called his name.  
By then, the sun had almost fully set and the background noise of the monsters had faded.  
  
“Frisk? You’re supposed to be gone already.”  
He did not look up from his flowers.  
  
Frisk called his name a second time. They took a step towards the patch of flowers from the entrance.  
  
Not hearing anything else, Asriel decided to take a look. As he turned around briefly, however, Frisk seemed to have hesitated moving closer. Their gaze seemed to linger on his small figure, forcefully concentrated on tending to the patch of flowers. Finally, they spoke simply. “Come back, Asriel.”  
  
“...Look, someone needs to tend to these flowers, okay? I’m not… I'm not going anywhere.” His voice cracked slightly at the last sentence. He winced.  
  
Asriel continued tending to the sound of crickets chirping and a small breeze blowing from the opening. The flowers rustled.  
  
Finally, Frisk took a deep breath. “Asriel, you don't have to stay here like this. I- I know a way you can-”  
  
“Why? I died a long, long time ago, Frisk.” Asriel shifted, eyes never leaving the field of flora, stalks swaying in the breeze that swept through.  
“I'm just… a bad memory that shouldn't be here now. Seeing me around would only spoil the mood for everyone. Not to mention the fact my body won't... last.”  
  
Asriel glanced back at them, and back to his hand. A small, but noticeable layer of dust had formed on it.  
  
He went back to his gardening.  
  
“That's why- I know how to let you keep your body. You can… You can go back to living normally with your parents.” Frisk said hesitantly.  
  
“What? ...Oh. You're not planning on letting Dr. Alphys experiment on me again, are you? You already know what happened the last time she did that.”  
  
“No. I- I tried that before. In another timeline.”  
  
Asriel mulled over that for a bit, then decided to stand up and take his first real look at them.  
“So you've tried a whole bunch of ways to save me, huh.”  
  
Frisk nodded. A small tear escaped their eye. They wiped it away as quickly as it had appeared, feigning like it was a bit of dust instead, but Asriel noticed.  
  
“Well, all those methods were a waste of time, seeing how you and I are standing here.”  
Something darker had come over Asriel, who folded his arms, a slight edge in his voice as he walked towards them.  
  
“I'm telling you, there's no need for you to waste your time on me. You can't save everyone, Frisk.”  
He stopped in front of them.  
  
Frisk was so silent Asriel could hear nothing but their shallow, shaky breaths.  
He fought to push the words out of his tight throat.  
  
“I know you want a happy ending for everyone in the Underground, Frisk, but it's just not happening. I know about the things RESETs can do to someone, okay? I just… don't want you to suffer like this. There's no need to do any of this, Frisk. Just let it go. Let… let them be happy.”  
  
His throat tightened even more at the last few words. Images of his mom, his dad, smiling, enjoying the fresh, sweet air up above with Frisk, their beloved child, without him-  
  
Asriel forcefully focused on the shaky breathing noises Frisk was making. He couldn't be thinking like that.  
  
Frisk seemed completely undeterred to his efforts. Their eyebrows edged down as they began shaking their head, miniscule, almost imperceptible motions at first, progressing as he continued talking, into sharp weaving movement that their face almost became a blur - almost as if to block out what he was saying.  
  
Asriel was at the end of his shortening fuse. “Frisk, you are so- so stubborn, you know that? Just give it up already! How many resets will it take to knock it into your thick stupid skull that there’s no way for me to come back?” His voice, now burning with unbridled frustration, ricocheted off the walls.  
  
Finding nothing more to say, Asriel heard nothing but his blood pounding in his ears as he suddenly pushed Frisk away as hard as he could and turned away, covering his slightly damp face with his hands.  
  
He fell to his knees. He realised right after using that much strength with a body as weak as that, he felt extremely light-headed. His head started throbbing. He could feel it… he would be turning back soon.  
  
Frisk stumbled back several steps, stunned for a moment.  
  
Asriel managed, soberly, “Leave. Please. I don't want you to see me like… like this.”  
His throat caught at the end.  
  
Pathetic, he thought.  
  
Salty, salty tears began streaming silently down his face.

* * *

  
  
  
After some time, Frisk gathered their strength. They knew it was now or never- they had to do it before the sun fully set, or Asriel would be gone forever.  
  
It had happened far too many times- and it was time to put an end to it.  
  
They had deeply, desperately, wished for a chance to help him.  
  
Across countless timelines, each and every time they had reached out to him, no matter how many stark refusals they had gotten, this Frisk wasn't going to give up now.  
  
They had heard his small, dying, pleading last cry into the void for help each time, and they had remembered how it would become too late, and there was nothing to do but move on… or RESET.  
  
And they were filled with D E T E R M I N A T I O N.  
  
  
Frisk took a step toward him, their voice unwavering.  
  
“No.”  
  
It cut through the deathly quiet air, a single word, aptly conveying that unrelenting will to change fate.  
  
Frisk took another step toward Asriel.  
  
“There is one, final way to help you. And after all these tries, all these resets, I've finally, finally, made up my mind.”  
  
It was then that Asriel realised that the dying orange light in the cavern had been replaced with a strong, pulsating red glow, becoming stronger with each step Frisk took towards him.  
  
“Frisk?!” He turned hurriedly around, almost losing consciousness in doing so. He desperately clutched his almost-splitting head with one hand while attempting to focus on the red, warm light floating above Frisk’s outstretched palm.  
  
“Frisk… I can't. Not after what happened before. I won't take your SOUL. I don't want another friend dying because of my fault.” Asriel pushed Frisk’s hand back to them as they approached, his head starting to spin.  
  
Frisk was not deterred. They continued and knelt down in front of Asriel.  
“This is the only way, Asriel. I left you alone in this place so, so many times. Every single time, I felt like I wouldn't be able to continue seeing you like…”  
They gestured to the cold, shadowy cavern.  
  
“But I… we didn't give up trying. So many times, Asriel. We tried, and tried, and tried… But. I finally found the strength to end this. Please, just let me save you, Asriel.”  
Glistening from their face, small rubies glittered in the now almost fully dark cavern.  
  
Asriel looked deeply into the pleading face of Frisk, both of them illuminated by the red SOUL floating between their faces.  
  
As the last streak of twilight faded, the glow of the red SOUL grew ever brighter, flooding the barren, rocky cavern with light, brimming with life. It illuminated both of them, Frisk holding desperately onto Asriel, Asriel doing the same. Both of them held on tightly as their features blurred into white.  
  
The light grew blindingly, painfully bright.

* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  
Asriel dreamed of a pure void.  
A disjointed voice- if it could even be called a voice, more a buzzing- coming from seemingly everywhere around him, slightly familiar yet terrifying, echoed a single, fear-inducing word:  
  
“...Interesting.”  
  
  


* * *

  
As dawn broke over the horizon and soft birdsong wafted through the opening high above in the cavern, he woke with a start. He was lying on his back. His vision swam as the opening in the cavern shifted into view.  
He sat upright, looking confusedly at his hands and body. He… he hadn't changed back?  
  
“...just let me save you…” Frisk’s words seemed to echo through the cavern, yet again, as he grasped the weight of the situation instantly.  
  
Asriel, feeling a sense of horror, willed his SOUL out. A red heart with a minuscule crack of white nested within stared back at him, afloat in his trembling hands.  
  
“Oh, no. No, no, nononono. Frisk? Frisk?!” Asriel scrambled to his feet, looking around for them. It was then he noticed a still, unmoving, crumpled figure on the ground close by.  
  
Asriel, paralysed with shock, widened his eyes and mouthed a “no” in simple disbelief as his weakened knees gave way.  
Collapsing onto their lifeless body, Asriel cupped his face with his hands.  
  
“Frisk? Frisk, wake… Fr…”  
He felt his senses drain away, numbness spreading over every nerve in his body. His thoughts were cloudy, his consciousness detaching. His eyes constantly shifted, as if he were unsure where to focus on. It was almost like watching through someone else’s perspective.  
“This… this wasn't supposed to… Frisk, oh god… I'm so, so sorry… Please… wake up-”  
  
-Unwelcome flashes of memories drifted to the surface, his first loss, titanic feelings of regret, doubt, fear gripping him-  
  
  
For a time he felt was forever, he lay there, repeating nothing but Frisk’s name till his throat hurt, hoping, wanting so desperately for them to just be sleeping.  
But they weren't. He knew, deep down, it was just like before. They were gone.  
  
  
And it was all his fault.  
  
  
He rubbed his face absentmindedly, but his hand came away dry.  
  
The dust falling so lazily from above darted in and out of sight from the freckles of sunlight, but eventually reached its’ inevitable end, touching down on a blooming, sad yellow petal.

* * *

  
Asriel didn't realise his legs had carried him, stumbling, to a certain empty, candlelit bar in a freezing, snowy town until the flaming bartender gently put a mug of hot chocolate in front of him.  
  
Still shell-shocked, Asriel hesitated, then put the mug to his lips, and took a sip.  
It burned, but he welcomed the pain. It distracted him anyway.  
He scanned his surroundings. He was on a bar stool, and seeing how nobody was around, it was a slow business day and presumably so with all the monsters leaving the Underground.  
  
It was probably very unwise to go wandering around the Underground, what with his identity possibly being revealed, but he thought he could roughly count the number of monsters in the Underground who would recognise him at first sight on one hand.  
  
As he downed each quiveringly scalding swallow of the bittersweet liquid, his senses slowly returned.  
Gradually feeling something off about the weight of his head, and the fact it was becoming unusually cold, he realised he had some snow on it, so he reached one hand up to absentmindedly sweep it off.  
  
“cmon, don't do that to a work of art. look, it's even got that little tuft of hair on your head.” A dreadfully familiar voice drifted out of nowhere beside him.  
  
Asriel almost spit out his drink as he jerked back and recognised the blue-jacketed skeleton lounging on the stools beside him, and winking slyly at him. He felt his eyes widen instinctively into jittery orbs of sick yellow.  
  
Did he… did he know?  
  
Struggling to swallow his chocolate, he spluttered, “Smile--”  
But he was interrupted by the skeleton placing one cold white jointed finger on his lips. The almost-amiable lights in the skeleton’s eyes had all too quickly dissipated.  
  
“shhh. i’ll do the introductions here.”  
  
The skeleton sat upright, swinging his legs off the next stool.  
  
“name’s sans. so, what brings you back to life then, Mr. Prince?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the end product of a little thought I had in my head when I was browsing through so many saving-Asriel stories. Please, any comments/constructive criticisms are very much appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

Asriel looked warily at Sans, who was ordering a bottle of… he wasn't sure, but he swore he heard “ketchup, G”.

 

As Sans turned back to look at him, he looked hurriedly back at his own stained mug of nearly-finished hot choco.

“like i asked, what brings you back to life, Mr. Prince?”

 

Asriel turned to him as the bartender moved into the room behind the bar.

“How… how do you know who-”

 

“no point asking how; i have my ways. answer my question.” At that last part, the skeleton’s eyes darkened; Asriel assumed he had closed his eyes.

 

But with this very, very dangerous skeleton, anything was possible at this point.

 

Asriel stayed silent. He had no idea how to explain that his friend had given him their SOUL… and passed away, because of him.

 

 The soft, yet resoundingly clear clink of glasses knocking on each other could be heard in the backroom; the bartender was presumably washing glasses.

 

“staying quiet, huh. not advisable if you wanna have a good time here. alright, i’ll rephrase for you- what did you do with Frisk?” Sans’ eyes had darkened ominously again.

 

“I didn't do anything! I swear. It…” Asriel trailed off, not knowing how to continue. His throat seemed choked up again.

 

Sans sighed. “ok, ok. you don't seem to be thinking of the consequences if you don't say anything to convince me, so here. lemme clue you in.”

Sans now really closed his eyes, his grin seemingly plastered unconvincingly on his face.

 

“so Frisk breaks the barrier, frees monsterkind, and mysteriously disappears the same day.”

He lifted one finger up.

 

“then a long-dead prince comes by, who _somehow_ knows the name of Frisk, a human who didn't exist in his era.”

Two fingers.

 

“and, this is the kicker, this prince is quaking in his fur encountering a perfectly friendly skeleton he _never should have_ seen before.”

Asriel stared, mortified, at the three fingers on the bony hand the skeleton was displaying to him.

 

“so, kiddo, what should i make of this?” Sans retracted his hand, then turned back to enjoy the drink the bartender had placed on the table.

 

Asriel’s heart sank as his gaze shifted to the countertop. He knew exactly what had happened. He had killed… killed his own friend.

 

The words seemed to echo unendingly through his skull. It had already been heart-achingly bad enough the first time. Watching Chara on their deathbed, their last words, their last breath escaping their lips, their eyes unfocusing, their last signs of life fading away…

 

Their body had been so, so numbingly cold to the touch.

 

...It occurred to him dully that this very same thought had surfaced in his mind twice.

 

 

As Sans finished his ketchup, Asriel had hunched over on the counter. He had propped his elbows on the countertop, hands clenched around his head, as he stared wildly at the empty mug.

 

“...what are you…” Sans started, realising the young prince was shaking violently.

 

Asriel couldn't. He couldn't take it any more. A strangled hiss escaped his throat. A choked cough. A loud sniffle-

 

Asriel broke down and bawled uncontrollably, much to Sans’ surprise, and chagrin.

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

“there, there… let it all out, kiddo…” Sans awkwardly patted the young prince’s back. He had been planning different ways on getting the kid to talk, but he definitely hadn't expected him to just break down like that.

 

“...F-frisk… I duh-didn't m-mean to-hoo-hoo...”Asriel hiccuped hysterically.

Sans held out the napkin, but Asriel suddenly turned around, grabbing onto Sans’ jacket, shocking Sans terribly- he almost leapt back- but Asriel took a deep, shuddering breath, and blew his nose loudly.

 

Those long ears flapped about, Sans admittedly thought, adorably.

 

He waited till Asriel had finished, then gingerly removed his jacket from Asriel’s tight grip: the kid’s got a surprisingly strong grip for… well, a goat child, Sans grumbled inwardly.

 

He held up his arms, coolly examining the jacket.

 

“ah, i’ll never hear the end of this from Papy. he just washed it yesterday, too.” He lamented to no one in particular, a lethargic sigh escaping his teeth. He'd had a lot to do today. Having to wait for a little...murderer child to calm down from his hysteria would be such a pain in the _Asriel._

 

Ok, that one was subpar by his standards.

 

 

 

Grillby was standing at the opposite end of the bar, not wanting to come any closer towards the waterworks.

 

After Asriel had calmed down some, Sans had slumped over on the countertop. Asriel sniffled once more, blowing his nose on the one of the napkins Grillby had set out for him. He had no idea how long had passed.

 

Not knowing exactly what to do, Asriel threw all his soggy used napkins into the wastebasket, settling back onto the barstool, and took a deep breath.

 

He swivelled slightly to his left to face Sans. The skeleton was comfortably snoring away. Asriel coughed a little to soothe his blocked throat, which was slightly sore from all the crying he had been doing in a short time. But Sans hadn’t seemed to hear him.

 

Asriel coughed a little louder this time.

 

Sans shifted slightly in his seat.

 

Asriel cleared his throat the way he had seen his father do, usually to get attention from others in the room. A-HE-HRRMmmm.

 

“So… Smi-Sans. I just want to say… How-how should I…?” His voice trailed off.

 

Sans had risen to his normal sitting position now, his eyes closed. He seemed to be deep in thought, so Asriel decided not to bother him too much.

 

After a pause that seemed an eternity, Sans opened his eyes. Asriel, however, had drifted off and had been staring emptily into his mug. He felt a little sluggish, and couldn’t form coherent thoughts quickly.

 

“alright kiddo. here’s what i think.” Asriel jerked conscious, whirring his head around in a blur.

 

“...i think you’re not… not a bad kid.” Sans hesitantly worded his sentence, seemingly at a loss for better words to describe him. “you did have many, many chances to take a swing at me just now-” Asriel’s eyes widened to almost twice their normal size as he nervously shook his head sharply to deny that the thought ever occurred to him- “and… i guess i might have misjudged you a little there. so, uh, sorry.”

 

The last three words had come to him almost chokingly, and Sans rolled the clearly unfamiliar words around his mouth. During the apology, Sans’ eyes seemed to dart around the room, landing everywhere but on Asriel’s eyes.

 

“i... honestly don’t know what to do with you now, so i won’t be doing anything too… drastic. but know this, kiddo.” This was the most serious Asriel had seen Sans today. “the time will come when you will be judged for your actions.”

 

Asriel stared at Sans for a good ten seconds before he realised Sans was not, in fact, after his head.

Shocked, again, Asriel found himself unable to say or think anything. The barrage of extreme emotions, one after the other, had frayed his emotional, and mental state, so his brain seemed to be constantly blaring static.

 

 

Sans waved his bony hand in front of Asriel’s dazed face, hoping to elicit some response from the poor frazzled child. Asriel finally managed a little squeaky “Um.”

 

All of a sudden, he couldn’t focus on anything, he didn’t know what was happening. Sans’ slightly concerned face went in and out of focus. The static in his head grew louder into a full-on blare, as he became aware of an accompanying ringing as well. He felt like he had put a pair of glasses with lenses made of rippling water - if that made any sense...

 

The world begun blurring, spinning, the counter-top’s chestnut brown bleeding into the off-white of Sans’ head, which had begun warping into an oddly shaped snowball, everything was too bright, too loud, and it made him panic slightly, Sans’ voice barely registered in his ringing skull-

 

Asriel’s eyeballs rolled into his skull and he passed out.


	3. Chapter 3

They felt nothing but the rush of wind against their body as they fell, fell, fell. Strangely, they did not feel as much fear as they’d expected. They watched as the light of the hole they’d fallen through grew smaller and smaller.

Eventually, however, they hit the floor. The sound of impact echoed especially loudly through the cavern. While not as painful as they expected, it still shocked them terribly. The plantlife growing from what little sunlight made it through had broken their fall, somewhat.

 

They lay there for a long time, hearing nothing but the slight breeze wafting through, the leaves of the flora around rustling slightly. Other than that, they let their gaze wander the spacious cavern they had landed themselves in.

It was then they heard that voice.

 

“It sounds like it came from over here…” The sound of footsteps, growing in pace and volume. There was a small rustling, and something white popped into the edge of their vision.

 

“Oh! You’ve fallen down, haven’t you?” Large, yellow eyes shyly entered their field of vision, blinking curiously. They blinked theirs in return.

“Here, get up…” The white monster offered a furred white hand to them, which they took hesitantly, as if scared the hand might retract suddenly. With some exertion, the monster managed to pull them up into a sitting position.

 

“...What’s your name?” The monster gathered its courage to ask.

 

After a pregnant pause, they decided to answer.

 

“Ah… That’s a nice name. My name is Asriel. I live here with my parents.” Asriel gestured around him to the quiet cavern and the now noticed doorway to, what they assumed, was where Asriel lived.

 “Um… I… “ Asriel stopped, thinking long and hard, “I think you should know that, um-…… you’re pretty injured.” The last part of the sentence seemed hurriedly changed, as if Asriel had wanted to say something else at first, but changed his mind. He had looked away oddly after saying it.

 

They eventually stopped staring at the monster, who was starting to blush from their unrelenting gaze, and decided to see if what Asriel had said was true.

 

They looked downwards and inspected themselves closely. Their leg was bent at a very odd angle. The pain was starting to set in now. It looked rather unsettlingly like one of the dolls back at the…

 

No. They had promised themselves they wouldn’t think back on their past, once they left. They decided to focus on inspecting their body further.

Other than the broken leg, nothing else seemed too serious. Just a few bumps and scratches here and there.

 

It was embarrassing, to say the least. Here in an unfamiliar land populated by an unfamiliar species, and they had, very ungracefully, landed themselves in the middle of it, completely defenceless and injured to the point of immobility, to boot. Very obviously, this was not part of the plan.

 

What would Asriel do to them now? It dawned on them that they were completely at the mercy of the monster’s whims.

 

A pang of slight panic set in. They looked back at Asriel. He was playing with his feet-paws, using them to shift the little flowers around. Eventually, he noticed them looking, and blushed again. After a while, he seemingly decided on what to say.

“Um… I think your injuries are pretty bad. But.” Asriel bent on his knee.

 

“Here, I’ll support you- We can get back home, and mom’ll be able to treat your injuries. She’s really good at healing magic.” Asriel patted his own shoulder, offering it to them. “It’s alright. Here.”

 

They were very, very confused. They had shown no reason for the monster to offer any help of any kind. So why had he? The sense of helplessness the poor human felt grew, clouding their mind with a whirlwind of disorientation, mixed in with a moderate dose of pain.

They remained motionless, continuing to stare at the offered hand.

Asriel looked around awkwardly as they did not respond for a while, then widened their eyes, noticing something, but only for a moment. His face quickly changed to that of a gentle understanding. “Don’t worry. You can trust me. Everything… Everything will be okay, I promise. We can go when you’re ready.”

 

As Asriel placed his outstretched hand on their head, the human flinched. Asriel, startled by the sudden movement, retracted his hand slightly, but in the end, decided to place it more firmly this time. 

He ran his hands through their soft expanse of hair, partly combing it, partly patting their head. The human shook slightly, looking down. Asriel glanced at them kindly, then continued watching the dust drifting lazily about the sunlit cavern.

 

Eventually, the human tugged at Asriel’s sleeve. It seemed that they were ready to leave.

Asriel shifted his position to get ready, then put their arm around his shoulder and neck.

 

They managed to stand up after nearly losing their balance. One arm draped around the small white monster, they slowly limped into the entranceway.

The human’s hand ended up on the small monster’s neck, and for just a fleeting moment, they felt strange- having the fate of this small monster in their hands. They could, so easily, choke this monster, watch him die. So full of openings.

 

But it was only for a fleeting moment. They reasoned, they couldn’t make it back to Asriel’s parents’ house by themselves. They needed Asriel to get there.

 

...It definitely wasn’t because they were crying.

* * *

 

 

Asriel’s house had turned out to be a quaint cottage, built into a section of the surprisingly expansive area they had just gone through; Asriel had called it 'Home like the word home but with a capital H'. After managing to solve several puzzles(several with close shaves), they emerged at a clearing; on the opposite side of the spacious room, stairs leading to a grand-looking building- in the middle was a door. Was it just their imagination, or did the whole thing look slightly like a face…?

 

“Here we are! I’m pretty excited about introducing you to Mom and Dad. They’re worried about me not making friends with the other kids in the Underground, but it’s just that… they treat me different from the others because ‘I’m the prince’.”

 

Asriel stamped his foot. “I… I hate that name. It’s just a title. Um, anyway. So in the end... I’m usually just by myself. Ha ha.”

 

The human had stopped walking. Asriel noticed them looking straight and seriously at him now, and he could see a glint of understanding in their eyes. They shared that look for a time, kindred lonely souls finally having found someone of their kind.

 

The spell was broken when a motherly voice sounded from the house. “Asriel! Time to come home for dinner! We are having your favourite. Hurry back before it gets cold!”

 

Asriel broke eye contact first, looking toward the source of the voice. “Oh, that’s Mom. I think we’ll be having dinner late though. She’ll be really busy treating your leg. Haha.”

 

They made it to the top of the stairs, Asriel huffing and puffing as he pulled both their weights. Asriel had to take a few moments to catch his breath.

Then he pushed open the door, and they shuffled in. “Mom can be really caring,” he whispered, “but sometimes… it gets a bit much. Just saying.”

 

They peeked into the living room. It was empty, save for the warming fire burning in the hearth.

From the kitchen beyond, they could hear sounds of utensils in the kitchen. They made it to the dinner table, and he let them sit on his dining chair while Asriel went to tell his mom what had happened.

 

Toriel was just putting on her oven mitts and taking the hot steaming pie out from the oven when Asriel approached her. She didn’t notice him coming into the kitchen until he reached up and tugged on her apron.

 

“Oh, my child! I did not expect you to be home so early. Usually I have to go to the garden to get you to come home. Has anything interesting happened to you today?”

 

Asriel looked at her with bright eyes, saying, “I made a friend today! They… They fell down, so I brought them back home. They’re sitting at the dinner table now. Could you help them treat their injuries, mom?”

 

“I will, after I finish preparing this pie. So, what is their name?” Toriel shifted the pie to the kitchen counter, where she brought out a kitchen knife to cut the pie with.

 

Asriel answered, a little more shyly this time. The name was quite unfamiliar on the tongue, so he inwardly said it several more times until it came a bit more naturally.

 

“What a nice name. Where are they from?” She began neatly cutting the pie into small pieces.

 

Asriel paused. Should he tell the truth? He didn’t see any harm in doing so, so he did.

“They came from above.”

 

Toriel paused. “A… above, my child?”

Asriel, not knowing why she had reacted so oddly, continued nonchalantly. “Yeah. They fell down from above the ground.”

 

At this, Toriel halted, her knife still in the pie. She knelt down, shocked eyes locking onto her son’s, and gripped his shoulders tightly. “My child. Did they… Did they do anything to hurt you?”

 

Asriel, confused eyes scanning his mother's for answers, replied. “What? Um… no. They’re friends with me. Why would they...” He trailed off as Toriel stood up, looking coldly towards the living room entrance.

Asriel felt a twinge of fear in his stomach. What was happening? Why was his mom being so aggressive all of a sudden?

 

“Mom, what… what’s wrong?”

 

“My child, what you encountered was a human. The same kind that trapped us all down here.” Toriel looked into Asriel’s eyes, seriously. “They are very dangerous, and even the younger ones should never be underestimated.”

 

“But, but! They didn’t do anything to me! They’re a good human, really!”

 

“... My son, I do wish to believe your words… But I cannot take that chance. No human should ever be allowed to roam freely in the Underground.”

 

“Mom…” Asriel started, but on seeing the hardened look on her face, he knew he could not change her mind. She was stepping towards the living room. Asriel knew he had to do something.

 

He jumped in front of her, both arms outstretched.

“Mom, please. I can’t let you hurt them. They’re my friend.”

 

Her eyes softened, eyebrows furrowed slightly. “Please move, my son.”

 

“No. I can’t.” His gaze of determination burned brightly. “They are my friend and I have to protect them.” He sincerely hoped his words would get through to her.

 

“My son… Do not look at me that way.” Toriel’s steeled mask seemed to crack for a moment.

 

Asriel continued to look pleadingly at his mother. Toriel continued to gaze aloofly towards her son. Mother and son stood strong in a battle of wills.

 

Under Asriel’s unwavering eyes, pleading for her to stop, however… Her steely gaze quickly melted to one of resignation. After a tense while of silence, she broke her gaze, lowering her eyes to the ground. Asriel put down his outstretched arms.

 

“Asriel...” Her hardened look was no more, instead a bittersweet, longing smile grew on her face. “My expectations, my judgement, my fear… For you, my son… I will put them aside.”

  

Asriel broke into a run, throwing himself into her outstretched arms. She returned the hug, smiling. The two of them shared the embrace for a long time.

 

All of a sudden, however, the sound of a chair being knocked over, and a gasp came from the dinner table. Both of them swiveled their heads instantly to the source of the noise. Asriel broke free of his mother’s frozen grip and sprinted outside the kitchen, closely followed by Toriel.

 

They were greeted with the sight of Asgore, back heaving, blood-red trident stabbed into the wall- razor-sharp prongs barely missing the human’s exposed neck. The human’s calm red eyes showed no fear whatsoever, looking Asgore straight in the eye calmly.

 

“CHARA!”


	4. Chapter 4

Asriel remained rooted to the spot, knees stiffening and refusing to move. He had never seen a reaction to anything this intense from his father before.

 

The bulky, yet docile and mild-mannered monster who loved tea that he knew to be his father would never, in his mind, ever behave like this.

And yet, there they stood, a battle-worn monster, mercilessly pinning an injured human child to the wall without so much as a single word.

 

The only sudden movement came from Toriel, who had rushed forward towards them. She placed her hand upon his, and attempted to pry him from the razor-sharp weapon. “Gorey. Asgore. Please, don’t do this. They’re just a child.”

 He said nothing, eyes hidden in the shadows of his lowered face. For a moment, nothing could be heard but the frenetic, tense breathing of the warrior.

 

As suddenly as the weapon had appeared, his too-tight grip on the trident loosened, and it faded away. Asgore suddenly appeared much more weary, head still lowered.

He took a step away from Chara, who was still staring warily at him while rubbing their neck slowly.

He seemed to stare back at them as well, saying nothing. As he turned and left, however, he uttered, “...Please excuse me.” before hurrying down the corridor into his room.

 

Toriel took a look at the two children apologetically, before quickly walking towards Asgore’s room.

 

 

“Ohmygosh, Chara… are you alright? Wait, I’m really sorry, that was a stupid question, obviously you’re not, ohhhhh what do I do?” Asriel started panicking, pacing around the seat Chara had taken. Their eyes followed his movements the whole time, without directly moving their head.

 

As he ran around, several ideas popped into his head, so he decided to go with the best one- he decided to emulate his mother and get a wet cloth to wipe some blood off the human.

He sprinted into the kitchen, nearly tripping on the armchair in the process, and grabbed a clean-looking towel, which had been luckily hanging off the oven handle in the far end of the room.

The hard part came when he had to actually use the sink to wash the towel. He was far too short to reach the sink, let alone let the water run and hold the towel over it.

 

He had a brilliant idea, though, He could just take a chair from the living room and climb on it to reach the sink! It was foolproof.

Leaving the towel hanging from the sink, he went back into the living room to get a chair. Chara watched, extremely amused by his actions for some reason.

 

He dragged a chair from the dining table towards the kitchen. “Nnnnggggh..….” It was much, much heavier than he’d expected. He had to exert every muscle in his body to even get it to move slightly! Eventually, however, he managed to get it into the kitchen. Panting, he took a while to catch his breath before he started the plan.

Firstly, he needed to get onto the chair. He clambered up quite easily, being nimble enough from playing catch with his dad sometimes. Next, he reached for the towel. Now he had to reach forward for the tap… He silently got mad at himself for not moving the chair any closer to the sink. It was just so far away!

With a huge effort, Asriel managed to stre-e-e-tch himself over the backrest of the chair and wildly smack the tap enough for the switch to go off. As fresh water started gushing from the tap, he breathed a sigh of relief. Now to wash it.

With herculean effort, he managed to shift practically half his torso off the edge of the backrest. Tiptoeing now, he strained to keep himself on the chair and swipe the towel several times into the stream of water. It was working… Now he only had to--

 

“ASRIEL!” An extremely loud scream pierced the air, twice today. It jolted Asriel straight out of his concentrated state of mind. Panicking, he leaned slightly too far forward, the chair starting to tip over--

 

\----

 

“Ow… ow ow ow mom stop stop OWWW!”

 

“I’m sorry my child, but you should have been more careful. What were you thinking, doing something as dangerous as that…? You may have wanted to help the human, but putting yourself in danger is _not_ the right way to do so. You only needed to ask me!”

“I’m really sorry mom, but I just wanted to show you that I could do stuff… On my own, you kn- Oww.” Asriel winced yet again as Toriel’s healing magic touched on the sore bruise on his forehead.

 

“Shh, please, lower your volume. Indoor voice, my child.” Toriel said absentmindedly, scanning the rest of his head and neck for injuries of any sort. “Yeah, yeah.” Asriel mumbled.

 

After a few minutes of close inspection, Toriel felt more at ease with the condition of her son, so she bid him goodnight, glancing once more quickly at the human so her expression couldn’t be made out, and closed the door.

“G’night, mom.” Asriel flipped his blanket a bit in the air, letting it settle onto his body.

As soon as the sound of her footsteps faded, he leapt out of bed and went to the side of the room Chara was sleeping at.

 

“Psst. You awake, Chara?”

 

Chara didn’t respond. A moment later, however, they seemed to realise he had been talking to them. They turned over to face him. Not saying anything, they watched Asriel quietly.

 

“Um, I… I’m sorry about what happened then. I didn’t… didn’t expect Mom and Dad to…” 

“No, you could not have known.” Chara’s eyebrows noticeably scrunched up more than usual. “There was no need to apologize.”

 

“Well, I hope Mom and Dad allow you to stay with us. We could be… like a family, you know?” Even in the darkness, the only amber light coming from under the door, Chara could see Asriel’s eyes twinkling with hope- the hope that Chara would become a new part of their family.

 

Chara was becoming more and more confused. They seemed to deliberate over asking Asriel a question, then decided to do it anyway.

“Why… Why would you want me to be a part of your family? I have not… done anything for you.”

 

“Why?” Asriel was pretty taken aback by the question. He hadn’t fully thought of why he’d wanted Chara to be his sibling, actually. “To tell the truth… I don’t know myself. Ha ha.”

 

Chara seemed very unsatisfied with that answer, crossing their arms.

 

“...Uh!” Asriel quickly added, seeing their reaction. “I just… really wanted a sibling, I guess. It gets boring being the only child in the house. Plus, I don’t have many friends here, like I told you. But Mom and Dad never did have any children after me.”  He looked suddenly downcast. But his mood cleared like the sky did after a quick summer rain. “But you’re here now, and warm and safe in our home.”

 

Chara looked slightly unsure about that last statement. As they did, though, they continued looking at Asriel for a while, and Asriel looked at them back. He could almost see gears turning in their head.

“...Yes. I am here now.” Chara finally said. “So, if your parents would allow for it… I would like to live in your home… As your sibling, if you want it.”

 

Asriel’s joy could hardly be contained in his face. In fact, he was smiling from ear to ear, eyes widened with unbridled happiness.

“Of course I do! Thank you thank you thank you sooo much, Chara! We’ll be the best siblings EVER!” Not holding back, Asriel pounced onto Chara.

 

Initially, they had stiffened up considerably, but after he had hugged them for a while, they gradually, gradually relaxed up their tensed muscles. Not knowing what to do, they sat there.

 

And eventually, Chara raised one awkward arm up, returning the embrace.

 

It felt warm.


	5. Chapter 5

Asriel woke with a start. Slowly taking in his surroundings, he found himself still in the restaurant, lying in one of the cushioned booths. He placed one arm onto his forehead, then rubbed his eyes with it. Sitting up, he swung his legs into the booth, sitting upright.

 

Had it really been a dream? It had felt all too real, almost as if he had been reliving his memories again. But… Strangely, this memory didn’t seem to have been in his mind at all. It was like a missing puzzle piece falling into his head. Except this piece didn't exactly seem to fit, at all. It was like reliving a memory, but part of it wasn’t what he… expected. This by itself was already puzzling enough, but...

 

This brought him to his next question- why were there so many gaps in his memories?

 

He felt his hand with the other; it felt real to the touch, all right. His body was definitely back. So why wasn’t his memory fully intact?

 

Searching through the memories he could bring out easily, he found himself able to only remember the plan he and Chara had carried out, the vague, now unfocused memories of Flowey, their more recent time when he had gotten 7 SOULs, the just-recalled memories of when Chara first fell, and some other less significant, scattered memories of the past. Everything was either very fuzzy or nonexistent.

 

He felt like something important was on the back of his mind… But for the life of himself, he couldn’t remember what exactly it was.

 

Focusing back on the present now, he discovered a folded piece of paper, neatly slipped in between his arm and body while he had been sleeping.

After unfolding it, he read it.

 

_heya prince. good to see you awake now. honestly, i’d let you take a snooze in my house, but… i don’t really open my door to strangers, you know? if i were you, though, i’d take a little walk, clear my head. take this as a chance to rethink how you should explain this whole… mess to me later._

 

_by the way, since you don’t have any change or money on you, you gotta clean some dishes to pay the bill. grillbz hates people who don’t pay their bills._

 

_-smiley trashbag_

 

Asriel felt around his pockets. True enough, he didn’t have any pocket change to spare. Hell, he didn’t have anything on him!

He got out of the booth and crumpled the note, putting it in the wastepaper basket in the corner. Sheepishly, he approached Grillby and asked if he could wash the dishes as payment. He silently nodded and gestured towards the entrance to the kitchen.

 

* * *

 

 

Opening the door into a gust of cold wind, Asriel waved goodbye to Grillby before letting it swing shut. He could see Grillby’s glasses shift up and down, so he guessed he had nodded. 

Once more, into the crisply cold town.

 

Asriel had been feeling quite numb since he woke up in Grillby’s, like he was currently taking a break from all the feelings he’d been having recently.

It felt awfully familiar.

 

The cold only seemed to accentuate how he currently felt a shell of his normal self- cold and alone, standing in a deserted town with nothing but the sound of the chilly wind ruffling through his fur.

He set off in the direction of the place between Snowdin and Waterfall, where snow turned to a cloud of water vapor, so thick it formed a fog basically impossible to see through properly.

 

He found his way through the fog, and stepped once more into the murky depths of Waterfall. 

 

* * *

 

 

Asriel had been here before, under better circumstances. Here he was now, all alone and without anyone or anything to accompany him.

 

Walking through the fields of Echo Flowers, however, now repeating messages of joy and hope, now that monsters could walk free on the surface again, Asriel felt something stir within his SOUL. With every small Flower he passed, whispering encouragements to him, he felt what could only be described as Determination.

But equal amounts of something else much darker crept into the corners, as he started to feel much more guilt and regret. He didn’t deserve any of this. Not this second chance. Not like this.

 

“Why don’t you just let your feelings die, Asriel? Then you can truly be the evil you see yourself as. I can help with that. Hee hee hee... “ At his darker moment, he could clearly hear a singsong voice, tendrils creeping, reaching for his SOUL from the shadows.

He didn’t want to. And yet… Living on like this took quite a toll on himself, emotionally at least. He just felt like a bundle of complicated feelings he could find no good reasons for having, basically all the time now. He didn't remember this bad part about having feelings.

He was a mess. As he continued down the pathway, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about Frisk. They had seemed so happy to have saved him, at the cost of their own life… And here he was, squandering his second chance away on feeling bad for himself.

 

He just felt like he’d failed Frisk, and everyone in the Underground. Now the saviour of the Underground was gone, and in their place was a useless child who did nothing but regret and angered the people who had loved Frisk.

He also felt extremely obliged to live up to what Frisk had managed to do for monsterkind, since he was the end result of their sacrifice… It was just another monumental weight on his SOUL.

 

 

Thinking about all of this, he felt a little better to have organised his feelings and thoughts a bit. As he neared an open space larger than the corridor he was walking down, the sound of ivory plinking broke the monotonous splish-splashing of water he had been listening to.

 

Was there another monster here? Asriel felt a little scared, meeting and talking to another stranger. Or maybe it was Sans, whiling his time away waiting for him to show up?  

Anyway, the chances of him meeting a monster who would recognise him on sight were quite small, so he took courage in that fact and decided to take a peek at whoever was playing.

 

He rounded the corner to the piano room, and found…

 

A little white dog playing the piano.

 

 

. . . . . . . . . . . . What.

 

Asriel stood dumbfounded, jaw open, as he watched the dog, with obviously no prehensile thumbs, play the piano with its paws. More accurately, it was standing with all four legs on the piano keys, playing notes with each one.

He had seen his fair share of interesting, mind-boggling things as Flowey. But… a piano-playing dog was definitely not one of those things.

 

The dog was playing the tune, the one he’d heard at the statue before, many times. But they seemed to be screwing it up so often that he almost couldn’t recognise the melody at all.

 

Finally, the dog threw up its paws in frustration. “AAAAGH! Why does it have to be a piano puzzle?!! Wait. I designed it. Ugh.” It smacked the keys by jumping on them to release some anger, but only managed some cute plink-plink sounds. It was so cute Asriel had to stifle a small giggle.

 

“WHAT!! Who’s there?!” The dog somehow heard Asriel, spinning around on the spot. Their eyes locked onto Asriel.

“Oh, it’s just you.” The dog turned back around, satisfied with what he had seen.

 

“Wait. Why are you… still you?” The dog turned back again, one eyebrow raised in interest. “I thought you wouldn’t be able to… hmm, it would be possible, but who would…” As it mumbled on and on, Asriel felt a tingle of fear arc down his spine. How did it know about… his condition?

 

The dog suddenly looked straight at Asriel, causing him to jerk his head back slightly. Was it going to attack?!

 

“Hmm, I don’t know the circumstances here that you’re able to notice me so easily…” The dog started.

That was easy enough to answer. Who wouldn’t notice such bad playing?

 

“But, hello! I don’t feel the need to introduce myself, since I’m just a talking dog. So what brings you here, Asriel?” Asriel’s eyes widened. This weird talking dog, whom he’d never seen before, even as his extensive time as Flowey, somehow knew about his condition AND his past? How?

 

“Not the talkative type, I know, but wouldn’t it be more polite to respond a little?” It hopped off the piano. 

“Um.” Asriel picked up his jaw where it had hit the floor a while ago. “...Why do you know so much about me?”

 

“Oh, it’s not that big of a secret, if I do say so myself. The evidence pointing to you is scattered across the Underground after all.” The dog replied nonchalantly. “Anyway, since you’re here, mind helping me with…” It gestured with its paw to the piano.

“Yeah… Sure.” Asriel hesitatingly approached.

 

He gingerly positioned himself at the piano, stretched his fingers a little, and began playing that melody he had heard so, so many times before, that he had grown to be completely sick of hearing, even though he had so many good memories associated with it…  

It started with a repeat of the right hand, the simple melody, the left accompanying with several lower notes. He played it a few times, muscle memory from a time long past coming out from deep within his subconscious.

But now those memories didn’t even exist. It was so achingly nostalgic, a callback to lost memories. He didn’t know what depths of his past he was playing from, but he coaxed more of the melody out, the accompaniment increasing.

 

 

“Um… You can...” The dog started, but shushed itself.

 

Asriel didn’t hear him anyway. The melody came out now, in full force. The left hand shifted up, as did the right. The notes blooming forth grew ever more hopeful. The playing grew louder, filling the room with music Asriel was so glad, so happy to hear.

He could almost see their face, but it was blurred from the blinding sunlight...

 

Then it grew softer. Back to the simple 8 notes. The left hand had stopped playing… 

The now-incomplete melody continued, a poignant echo of what had been, before.

 

The dog looked away. The room was left with a somber silence once more, paying respects to what had been lost.

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Right, then. In we go.” The dog walked into the newly opened chamber, as Asriel composed himself.

 

“Yeah,” Asriel croaked. He really had to stop with the crying and almost-crying. It was ruining his throat, plus he was starting to feel thirsty again.

 

They approached the pedestal, but it was empty.

 

“Speaking of which, you haven’t been here before, even with all your RESETs, have you?” The dog enquired.

 

“What… I thought you’d know that, with your current omnipotence about me and all.” Asriel looked down at it.

 

The dog laughed. To be frank, it laughed quite oddly, and Asriel slightly disliked it.

“I may be the creator of this world, but I don’t know everything about it. The ambiguity. It’s what I like about it. A world you can take your time to explore. A creator’s dream…” The dog looked dreamily at nothing. Asriel had no idea what it was rambling on about.

 

“......Anyway, I didn’t come here as Flowey- not that I can recall. I guess Flowey didn’t care enough about what was in here to bother learning to play the piano with leaves instead of fingers in the first place, haha.” Asriel said, shrugging. “You’ve asked me a few questions already, can’t I ask you some instead?”

 

Hearing this, the dog stayed quiet for a while.

 

Then the smile returned to its face. “Sure, ask me anything!”

 

“Right, so what are you even doing in a deserted place like this?”

 

“Ah, I’m just returning something to its’ rightful place. But I couldn’t do it with so many monsters, or witnesses, there to see me, so I decided to do it when no one was around- so when the barrier was broken and the monsters had all left. I didn’t expect to meet you, though. That was an error. But it was a happy little error, since I managed to get to my goal faster than expected!” It started laughing triumphantly again.

 

Asriel was starting to lose patience with how much it kept rambling. Less than half of what it was saying actually registered in his head. “Uhhh, right.”

 

The dog started rummaging within its’ oddly liquid-like fur, taking out a polished, gleaming red orb out.

“There we are,” the dog spun the orb around on one paw like a basketball, “back to your original place you go!” It reached out to the pedestal, posing dramatically as it did so.

 

Asriel stared at it for a while.

 

“... uhh, could you maybe…” The dog glanced behind itself.

 

Asriel bent down and lifted the dog up. It reached the height of the pedestal, managing to place it precariously onto it.

 

“Ha-ha! The legendary artifact is returned to its resting place thanks to my valiant efforts…!” The dog exclaimed, reaching its paws out gratuitously. It stayed like that a few moments.

 

 

“Um. You can put me down now.”

 

* * *

 

 

 “Alright, thanks for your assistance in helping me return that artifact!” Asriel accompanied the dog out of the room, where it sped ahead, stopped, and turned around. “Well, actually, where are you headed now?” 

“The exit of the Underground.” Asriel answered.

“Hmm, I guess I’ll accompany you for a while then, since I’m headed the same way anyway!”

 

“Uh, I think there’s no need to-”

 

“Nonsense! I see you’re pretty lonely without someone to keep you company. I shall grant you the wish I know you hold deep in your SOUL. It’s alright, I’m willing to make a sacrifice of my time for you. You are a special character after all.”

 

“...” Asriel didn’t know what to say at all. The sheer amount of words the dog had just unleashed onto his ears was shocking enough. 

“Shocked speechless by my awe-inspiring actions… That reaction alone is enough recognition for my efforts. Come on, let’s get outta here!”

 

The dog pranced out of the piano room. Asriel was left to follow in its’ wake, slightly dazed. As he left the room, however… the dog had simply left him in its dust.

Literally.

 

There was a silhouette of the dog made of dust, which broke apart and drifted away as Asriel approached it.

He guessed he’d be making the journey alone after all.


	6. Chapter 6

The temperature had increased more and more as Asriel neared the swelteringly hot lava pools of Hotland. Without any good way to cool his body off, he could feel himself constantly collecting heat in his fur, causing him to sweat, a lot. He could only fan himself by flapping at his shirt collar, but that wasn’t enough.

  

Luckily, as he stepped out into the full blast of the blazing plumes of heated air, there was a water cooler before his arduous trek into Hotland.

Asriel greedily gulped down sweetly cold mouthfuls of water, some of it trickling down his chin as it escaped the corners of the gap between the cup and his mouth. He drank nearly 5 cups of water before he could safely say he had quenched his thirst. That really hit the spot.

  

Looking to the path he saw before him, to Alphys’ Lab, he felt apprehensive about just ignoring it and going straight to the lift. Something told him he might gain some answers to his incomplete return to this body, but… at what cost?

 

He decided to go into the Lab anyway. What did he have to lose? Alphys was probably gone, to the Surface or something, so nobody would be there to see him.

The door swung open as he approached with a whirring sound and some nice, cooling air wafted out into his face. Ahhhh…

 

Asriel hesitantly stepped into the Lab. There was an incessant whirring noise coming from somewhere, but it was darkened to the point he couldn’t see at all, and the only harsh red light came from the outside, where he had come in from.

As the doors remained open for a while, Asriel took the chance and kept his eyes peeled for the lightswitch.

 

The doors suddenly swung shut and Asriel was flung into complete darkness. It was a wonder Alphys could navigate around in this absence of light.

  

Considering his current options, he decided on simply creating some light to see with. He hadn’t done this in an extremely long time, so he was rusty. He wondered if he even remembered how to use magic. He hoped he didn’t accidentally blow himself up.

“Whatever, here we go…”

  

He closed his eyes and concentrated on the magic flowing through his body. It felt a bit like an entire pool of it residing within his SOUL, a soft scarlet, not unlike blood.

 

This felt different from the pure colourlessness he had felt-seen, from a time long past. He felt it almost humming within him, responding to his will.

He tried directing it towards his fingers, like...

...Did M-Toriel teach him? He had no recollection of it. Well, someone taught him, at least.

 

He imagined the red in his body starting to diffuse, like a stream towards a sea, towards his awaiting fingers. He held them ready.

Once he felt enough magic flow course slowly through his veins, like water flowing through a clogged-up drain, he decided to let it happen and snapped his fingers.

 

A spark flew from them, and a small scarlet flame could be seen floating right above his hand. Surprisingly, it had worked the first time! Asriel didn’t really know why he was surprised though. Maybe it usually took a few tries in his past life. Asriel quickly cupped the flame with both hands, inwardly redirecting the flow to his palms now.

 

Looking around, he could make out the shapes of the structures around him, lit by a warm red, so he could probably make it across the room without suffering too many stubbed toes or bruised hips.

 

Asriel carefully took one step at a time, towards the other end of the darkened Laboratory.

 

Eventually, passing a table, refrigerator and bag of dog food, he reached a door, with a toilet sign for reptilian monsters. To the unknowing eye, this would just look like a washroom. Asriel knew better, though. And to the left of it, on the wall, was... the light switch!

 

Asriel quickly shifted one hand from the cupping position to flip it. He stopped short of touching it, though. What if… someone saw the lights in the Laboratory on? Would they come in and check?

 

Not wanting to have anyone interrupt his little investigation, he left the switch unflipped, and pushed the button to open the “washroom” door. It slid open, and a burst of white light caused Asriel to shield his squinting eyes from the doorway. The flame in his hand extinguished with a little hiss.

 

Asriel walked into the too-bright glare of the lift and pressed the button down. The doors closed, and the lift began its sharp lurching trajectory down into the abyss…

* * *

 

 Asriel lit another flame in his hand, keeping one free to find his way around safely. Everything was deserted and dark as usual, without the lights on. He didn’t know where the lightswitch was in this place, so he had to make do with a temporary light source. It wasn’t like he couldn’t find his way around like this, so he continued on his journey.

 

Unfortunately, he didn’t really know where to go exactly to find his answers, so he started with the age-old maze answer. He put his hand on the left wall, and followed it wherever it stretched to.

 

Eventually, he reached a room with 3 musty, sticky(“Uggh…” he’d said, touching them accidentally with one, now sticky, hand) hospital operating tables, and on the other side of the dark room, he could see 3 identical sinks, the metal on them shining a sickly bloody red, a reflection of the flame he carried.

 

He decided to wash his hands with the taps’ water. No harm in doing just that, right?

  

As he switched one on, he realised, too late now, what was dripping out of it.

 

 

“C O M E  J O I N  T H E  F U N . “

 

 

“AAAAAAAAAHHH!” Asriel screamed, jerking his entire body backwards. He slammed his butt on the floor. The flame went out.

 

Now in almost-complete darkness, Asriel could only make out a vague circle-ish shape sliiiiding from the tap, dripping carelessly onto the dust-coated tiles of the Lab floor. It’s silhouette grew larger… and larger… and larger…

 

He crawled desperately backwards, reaching the wall quicker than he thought. Why did he come down here?  
  
It came closer and closer, and Asriel attempted to summon a flame from his paw. It shook too badly, and he couldn’t focus enough on directing magic into it anyway. It was useless. He couldn’t do anything.

 

“ T h e n , h o l d  s t i l l . . . “

 

He watched helplessly as it reached an appendage towards his face. Scared and frozen stiff, Asriel accepted his fate…

 

* * *

 

 

 

He wished he could say that he’d died without feeling much pain. But what he was experiencing now wouldn’t even be called pain. It was just mindless torture.

 

Meltingly-hot lava seared where it touched him, obliterating every nerve, filling every ounce of his body with unexplainable pain. He felt like he was melting away into a puddle from this all-consuming heat. All thought fled his mind, replaced with nothing but endless suffering.

 

And somewhere deep inside, he felt something being pushed into his mind. A moving-picture he was forced to watch, while smothered in a tank of hellishly-red, unfathomable, screaming pain, pain, pain. The world had drained of all colour, except a piercing, all-consuming dark red.

 

Nothing in the world could even compare to what he was feeling now, every atom of his body experiencing a living hell, a deafening blast of sound descending on him, maybe it was him screaming, maybe it was the demon. He wasn’t sure anymore. As a final mercy, he felt himself fading, floating slowly away, the excruciation ebbing. Losing consciousness--

 

B u t  n o b o d y  c a m e .

 

* * *

 

 

\-- The 13th RESET.

The journey had just begun. They had no idea what to do. What could they do? They could not see their golden, gleaming goal, out of sight, out of reach. But they believed it still existed. It was more a desperation to SAVE something, anything. They guessed there was only one person they could truly SAVE, in the end. And the ability, the route to SAVE him also didn’t exist in this universe.

 

 

But that was exactly why they knew it was possible.

 

 

\-- The 195th RESET.

The journey was unclear. They still had no idea what to do. Everything they had tried so far, every decision, whether major or minor, they had changed was fruitless, affecting nothing in the end.

 

He still looked at them, knelt in that darkening field of flowers, a small, sad smile on that innocent face. He would open his mouth. And it was always those same words, echoing round the void that threatened to close in, that haunted them, pushed them ever onward.

 

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

 

 

\--The last RESET.

In the end, nothing could be done. Every choice, every route, every “thing that could have been done differently”, they had explored, they had gone through, they had done.

 

It was an inevitable conclusion. Unchangeable. A sea of ever-eddying variables trickling down to a unwavering constant of 0.

 

 

...But.

 

They had that last chance. The one last possible choice they could ever make, that could, maybe, probably, possibly, save him.

 

And now, with all options exhausted, they knew they had to do. Both as salvation for him, and for themselves.

 

They took a breath, then entered that fateful room, where he would be, tending to his flowers…

 

* * *

  

Memoryhead removed its’ appendage. Having apparently done what it had wanted to do, all signs of hostility had disappeared from it.

Asriel instinctively took a long, deep breath, ignoring the newly searing pain in his lungs. He knew he had screamed himself hoarse, because he couldn’t make any audible sounds with his throat anymore.

 

“Oh well.” It projected a calm voice, before sliding back over into the sink and disappearing up the tap. Had it… fused it’s nerves with him then? Was that how it felt all the time?

 

He swallowed, feeling that burst of pain wreck his raw throat muscles and his feeble body, which felt like it had been torn apart and put together again, repeated at least a million times. Moving his legs close to his body, he hugged his legs tight.

 

Every sensation he felt was accompanied by a phantom pain, like his body had braced itself for the hell that he was going to be thrown in again, and basically imagined it into existence.

 

 

Asriel didn’t move from his position for a very, very long while.


	7. Chapter 7

New Home had always been a picturesque white-and-black city of bustling monsters, no matter what time of the year it was. Of course, with the Barrier broken and monsters flooding out of the Underground, nearly nobody was left in the capital of the Underground. It was especially quiet on the path to the King’s castle.

 

This was good for Asriel, who had been wandering its’ path, taking slow, shambling steps in the general direction of the castle. His lifeless eyes focused on nothing in particular, his arms hugging his body like it would fall apart any moment. It definitely seemed like he’d had enough negative experiences for someone his age-- or the age he looked like.

 

 

The grey-scaled home he once knew eventually came into sight. With no visible change in his expression, he lifted one arm, which felt about fifteen times the weight it normally was, and held onto the handle, leaning back and using his weight to pull the door open.

 

Not thinking any more, Asriel turned right into the corridor, entered the first door he came to, and collapsed on the replica of the bed he once fell asleep cozy and warm in every night.

 

He dreamt of nothing at all.

  

* * *

 

 

He awoke in his room. For one fleeting moment, he wondered if everything that had happened to him had just been a bad dream. But as the fog of sleep lifted, his rationality came to as well, and that thought disappeared like a wisp of smoke.

 

Asriel felt physically better, but something told him the emotional scars he had gotten so recently wouldn’t be fading anytime soon.

 

 

Gathering his strength, Asriel stepped into the passageway under the house. He knew he would be meeting Sans in the Judgement Hall soon, and he still had no idea what to say. Winging it seemed to be the only way.

 

Even then, he couldn’t guess what the deceptively emotional skeleton would do then, to him. He had to be prepared for the worst-case scenario-- a fight. But he didn’t want to. He couldn’t bring himself to harm anything else after Frisk. He’d already done enough damage to the future of humans and monsters- he simply couldn’t do any more.

 

He’d just have to tell Sans the truth, and hope he’d come out alive.

 

* * *

 

The Judgement Hall awaited him. Asriel stepped into the sharp golden light, which engulfed any other colour in the room. The pillars on each side loomed over all, casting haunting shadows on the hallowed walls.

Bells rang in the distance, each toll counting down closer to his judgement.

 

One…

 

...He could hear the soft, calming twittering of those birds one could not help but envy, for that golden freedom they seemed to take completely for granted in going wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted.

 

Two…

 

...A pleasant breeze blew by, carrying with it the light aroma of yellow flowers. It tickled his nose slightly.

 

Three.

 

There he stood, across the hallway, hands in his pockets. His eyes were closed, but he couldn’t see very well- the lighting made it hard to distinguish anything but his dark silhouette.

 

The birds had stopped singing, and the air became slightly smothering. Asriel watched the figure raise his head slightly to look at him. His silhouette was completely darkened in the shadow of the pillar, save for those lights in his eyes that seemed to stare directly into his SOUL.

 

“so, you finally made it. been waiting a while. had something to do?”

 

Asriel didn’t feel the need to answer that question.

 

“well, that was then. what comes now… is the time of your judgement.”

Sans paused.

 

“... …”

Sans paused for even longer.

 

Finally, after a pause that had Asriel glancing around, Sans spoke.

 

“...what? why is your LV...” Sans murmured. For a moment, when Asriel looked back at Sans from where he had been briefly examining the orangey-tinted frosted glass, and the blurry city beyond, he could have sworn he’d seen Sans’ left eye glowing. Then it was promptly covered by his bony hand.

 

“i see now. heh. you’re the anomaly, all right.” Sans stopped rubbing his eye, placing his hand back smoothly into his jacket’s pocket. “welp, can’t let someone this dangerous through into the world like this.”

 

“What do you mean ‘dangerous’? I-I’d never…” Asriel started.

 

“there’s no need to talk.” Sans interrupted him again. “your LV did the speaking here.” He pointed to his seemingly innocuous-looking left eye. “and it told me you’re a dirty murderer.”

 

 

Even with the cold chill running down his spine… Was it just his imagination, or did Sans seem slightly unsure of his last statement?

 

 

“you’ve probably heard my little spiel about LV and EXP before, so i’ll skip it for convenience.”  Sans moved on, his pace quicker than usual. “make no mistake, your LV is 20.” Again, he did not look completely convinced. But the confusion had disappeared as quickly as it had come, replaced with a stone-cold smile.

 

“so... any last words?” Sans offered.

 

“I-”

 

“only kidding. kids like you, lying about not wanting to kill... don’t deserve last words.”

 

That same blank look...

 

“they should just be  b u r n i n g  i n  h e l l.”

 

And, with that, countless bones swarmed the corridor, rushing towards Asriel.

 

* * *

 

 

Nothing in the world could have prepared Asriel for this.

 

He had lost count of the number of attacks Sans had continuously thrown at him, the countless magical white bones hurtling towards him at speeds so high they seemed to blur into a continuous white solid.

Occasionally, a few blue bones would be thrown into the mix to throw him off his momentum. He could feel his HP draining away with each nick he received from the barrage of attacks.

 

Surprisingly, however, some of the attacks didn’t seem to do any damage to him at all, simply phasing through his body. But it happened so rarely, Asriel didn't want to push his luck.

 

Through it all, however, he felt that same determination burning in him. It told him instinctively, almost like a small whisper in his ear, where to go. What to do. Without it, he probably wouldn’t have made it through the fight at all.

 

As he leapt across green platforms, through small gaps in bones, and dodged large blasts of magic from giant floating skulls, Asriel found himself thanking Frisk for the fact that he had a body with arms and legs to dodge with.

 

“heh heh heh… guess i really was right about you. you’re doing awfully well for someone who shouldn’t have seen my attacks before.”

 

A small white bone, followed by a blue bone. This pattern of attacks continued for a while.

 

“well, i shouldn’t have had any doubt in the first place. timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting…”

 

Platforms appeared, sliding around. Asriel jumped on one, just in time for a Blaster to hit the floor where he was a second ago. More appeared, and Asriel was too late reacting to dodge one. Singing his fur badly, he felt more of his sins crawl down his back.

 

“until suddenly, everything ends.”

 

A large row of bones slid quickly towards Asriel. He barely reacted fast enough to jump over them.

 

“heh heh heh… that was you, wasn’t it?”

 

Asriel attempted to deny that accusation, but was quickly stopped short by Sans changing his gravity without warning, sending him on a trajectory into a pillar.

 

Ohhhh boy, he’d definitely feel that in the morning.

 

* * *

 

 

Asriel was positively fatigued by the fast-paced, one-sided battle he had been fighting thus far. He wasn’t sure he would be able to take much more of this, if at all. He fought for every breath that entered his screaming lungs.

The rest of his body wasn’t faring well, either. He was fairly sure he’d cracked a few ribs in the fight, and his body was becoming more and more unresponsive.

 

Looking over at Sans, he could immediately see he wasn’t the only one. Sans seemed extremely tired out just keeping up the attack.

Not only that, he also sensed that seed of uncertainty he had detected before had sprouted in his mind further, with Asriel not attempting to attack at all. Sans seemed less and less sure of himself with each attack he threw at him.

 

Would he be able to win Sans over?

 

“Look, I… I don’t want to fight you, Sans.” Asriel managed to get out, in between each laborious breath he took.

 

“...” This was the first time Asriel had ever seen Sans not respond, snarkily or otherwise, to him. Was his attempt getting through?

“A-and I get the feeling you don’t want to either, so…” Asriel continued. Noticing Sans had been looking down, still huffing and puffing, Asriel started to speak, but was cut short.

 

 

“...how many times.”

 

“I-I’m sorry?”

 

“how many times… did they RESET.”

 

They…?

Oh.

 

“I’m... not so sure myself. I think Frisk RESET too many times to count.”

 

“heh... i guess you… must really be someone special to them, to get them to suffer so much like that for you.” Sans seemed to be staring blankly into space now, like he was addressing someone invisible.

 

They both stood, panting, in the quiet Hall for a while more.

 

Then, almost invisibly, he could feel Sans’ magic retracting its’ grip from his SOUL. He could see it revert into a bright red again.

 

“look, the kid talked to me before… all that stuff happened. seemed really troubled by everything, too." Sans seemed to slump over more than usual now.

"they... only told me to promise that i wouldn’t do anything too rash. at the time, i didn’t know what exactly that meant then, but…”

 

“welp, guess i didn't keep that promise.” Sans carried a look only describable as bitter in his eyes now, his smile a grimace.

 

A sudden gust of wind brought piercingly cold air into the hall, reminding Asriel slightly of Snowdin.

“but... i believed in the kid. i respect their... decision.” Sans’ body seemed to sway slightly at a whim of the wind.

 

“...what i’m saying is, i’m letting you off. but don’t think for a second that we can prance around in the flowers and enjoy some sweet gushy friendship. i’m letting you go because i’m honouring Frisk’s last request.”

At this point, Sans’ eyes went eerily blank, again.  

“so... if i see you take one step in a bad direction… you’re not gonna have a good time. capiche, prince?” If Sans had eyebrows, one of them would have been raised questioningly at Asriel right now.

 

“Y...yeah, I get you.” By this point, he had almost gotten used to the hostility Sans bore towards him. It wasn’t unfounded, of course. He’d do the same, if he ever met Flowey.

 

“welp. guess i’m done here, then.”

 

And in the span of a blink from Asriel, he was gone without even a trace, leaving the hall like nothing had ever happened. The chirping of the birds resumed, filling the lifeless room with sound.

 

* * *

 

After that encounter, Asriel felt he had made up his mind about what he would do, after he left.

 

Going back to the replica of his home, he prepared the items carefully. Tearing several curtains, taking items from the kitchen, blankets and mementos from his room, and lastly, a golden flower seed packet he had found in a drawer somewhere. 

He was ready. Draping a curtain around him, he found that it masked his body and face quite well. In the growing shadows, no one would be able to recognise him on sight.

 

He hefted the bag of items onto his back, and set off toward the opening.

 

 

Into the throne room, bursting with tiny golden flowers, all of them swaying slightly as the draft did as it pleased, where a grand golden throne sat, lonely in the orange light, save for the cloth-covered throne in the back…

 

Asriel only realized there was someone at the entrance as he approached it. Almost rounding the corner, he saw a looming figure and instinctively leapt back!

Peeking around this time, he saw the figure had not moved. It was probably facing the exit… Would he be able to sneak around it in the shadows? Well, there was only one way to find out.

 

Asriel was right beside the figure when it turned abruptly to face him. With shock, he recognised that face to be that of none other than his father…!

 

“Da-uh, King Asgore…! What a surprise I did not expect to see you here, ha ha ha! I was just… just…”

 

“Oh! I was not expecting any more monsters to be leaving. Pardon my bluntness, but I seem not to have seen you before. Could you tell me your name, please?”

Name? Oh, god. He was drawing a total blank here. Any name… Any name...

But nothing came to his mind.

 

After a few seconds of panicked deliberation, which felt too short, he fell on a big blank.

 

“...well, ffffffrick…” He was in for it now. His father would recognise him, and his identity would be revealed. That was very very obviously not in his plan.

It was the complete opposite, actually. His mom would find out, and they would take care of him and just love him so much, and just constantly remind him of all the unspeakable things he had done to them-

 

 

 

“... … … … Wulfric?” The one word Asgore had uttered, completely stopped Asriel’s train of thought in its tracks.

It took everything he had for him not to drop his jaw on the floor.

 

“What a nice name. It is very nice to meet you, Wulfric.” Asgore warmly extended a large furred hand, offering it to a stunned - Wulfric, apparently, who took it after a moment of confusion.

 

“Well, thank you for introducing yourself. Please, the exit is over this way. You should be able to see the tents Tori...el,” he’d said with an awkward pause, “and a select team have set up, at the base of the mountain. There should still be enough space to house a few more monsters.”

 

Asgore gestured to the doorway, that led out onto the surface. He could see the orange rays of light, once again, slowly filling the room they stood in.

 

Asriel took a step, everything he had been worried about, or hung on his mind, melting away with each step he took. Everything he had done, everything he had gone through, had led to this moment.

He made the last step, hesitantly, into the fading rays of sun, watching the last vestiges of deep orange glow past the horizon.

 

The awe of the moment slowly wore off, as the stars began to twinkle in the young night. He had finally made it out, and it was time to follow his own path.

 

He started off in the opposite direction of the last ray of twilight, a rocky, unsure path across the mountain. While unsure of the path, he kept his gaze trained on the distant horizon. He was a nobody now, a face with no past. He was Asriel no more. All he could do now was to keep moving.

 

* * *

 

 

 

As monsters celebrated their newfound freedom, in the homely warmth of their tents, surrounded by the infectiously nervous feeling of what was to come in the future, everybody held their heads up high.

 

Come hell or high water, they would weather through adversity with the help of everyone else. For them, this was the start of a glowing new chapter- that they had survived the insurmountable trial of entrapment in a dark cave, and come back to a land promising unlimited potential. It was, finally, a continuation of their lives, after an eternity of stagnation in a cave that seemed to be growing too small...

All of that would halt temporarily, of course, upon the discovery of the savior of the Underground's body by the ex-sentry of Snowdin Town. According to their wish, the sentry would deliver their last will to a grieving king and queen, to carry on, to not give up. To stay determined.

 

 

For one monster, imbued with the power of a human SOUL, this meant that he would create his own future, forging his destiny alone. This was his rebirth.

 

 

Under the ever expansive canvas of glittering crystals, a pure white moon aglow, the genesis of a new era of monsterkind and mankind was just beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking around and reading my story! Loved it? Hated it? Want to see more? Want me to delet myself off the internets? Please do leave a comment below! Critiques are very much appreciated.
> 
> If any eagle-eyed readers spotted the way the front door swings in New Home, yes, it was deliberate.


End file.
